Isomeric Activity Cliffs-A Case Study for Fluorine Substitution of Aminergic G Protein-Coupled Receptor Ligands

Design, Synthesis, and In Silico and In Vitro Cytotoxic Activities of Novel Isoniazid-Hydrazone Analogues Linked to Fluorinated Sulfonate Esters

Cancer is a life-threatening disease, and significant efforts are still being made to treat it. In this study, we synthesized and characterized novel hybrid molecules (10-18) containing hydrazone and sulfonate moieties and tested their cell growth inhibitory effect on human colon cancer cells (DLD-1), human prostate cancer cells (PC3), and human embryonic kidney cells (HEK-293T) using the 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyl tetrazolium bromide (MTT) method for 72 h. In cell culture studies, all tested hybrid molecules except for 12 and 13 showed significant cytotoxic activities at a micromolar level with IC50 values in the range of 10.28-214.0 μM for the PC3 cell line and 13.49-144.30 μM for the DLD-1 cell line. Compounds 4 (10.28 μM) and 5 (11.22 μM) demonstrated the highest cytotoxicity against the PC3 cell line. Against the DLD-1 cell line, compounds 1 (22.53 μM), 4 (13.49 μM), 5 (19.33 μM), 6 (17.82 μM), 8 (24.71 μM), 9 (17.56 μM), and 10 (17.90 μM) in the series showed anticancer activity at lower micromolar levels compared to cisplatin (26.70 μM). Moreover, the study was handled computationally, and molecular docking studies were performed for compounds 1, 4, and 5 for PC3-FAK and PC3-Scr and compounds 4, 6, and 9 for the DLD-1-TNKS target. In this study, compound 4 was found to be the most effective and promising molecule for both targets.

Monofluoromethylation of N-Heterocyclic Compounds

The review focuses on recent advances in the methodologies for the formation or introduction of the CH2F moiety in N-heterocyclic substrates over the past 5 years. The monofluoromethyl group is one of the most versatile fluorinated groups used to modify the properties of molecules in synthetic medical chemistry. The review summarizes two strategies for the monofluoromethylation of N-containing heterocycles: direct monofluoromethylation with simple XCH2F sources (for example, ICH2F) and the assembly of N-heterocyclic structures from CH2F-containing substrates. The review describes the monofluoromethylation of pharmaceutically important three-, five- and six-membered N-heterocycles: pyrrolidines, pyrroles, indoles, imidazoles, triazoles, benzothiazoles, carbazoles, indazoles, pyrazoles, oxazoles, piperidines, morpholines, pyridines, quinolines and pyridazines. Assembling of 6-fluoromethylphenanthridine, 5-fluoromethyl-2-oxazolines, C5-monofluorinated isoxazoline N-oxides, and α-fluoromethyl-α-trifluoromethylaziridines is also shown. Fluoriodo-, fluorchloro- and fluorbromomethane, FCH2SO2Cl, monofluoromethyl(aryl)sulfoniummethylides, monofluoromethyl sulfides, (fluoromethyl)triphenylphosphonium iodide and 2-fluoroacetic acid are the main fluoromethylating reagents in recent works. The replacement of atoms and entire functional groups with a fluorine atom(s) leads to a change and often improvement in activity, chemical or biostability, and pharmacokinetic properties. The monofluoromethyl group is a bioisoster of -CH3, -CH2OH, -CH2NH2, -CH2CH3, -CH2NO2 and -CH2SH moieties. Bioisosteric replacement with the CH2F group is both an interesting task for organic synthesis and a pathway to modify drugs, agrochemicals and useful intermediates.

Tuning the Biological Activity of PI3Kδ Inhibitor by the Introduction of a Fluorine Atom Using the Computational Workflow

As a member of the class I PI3K family, phosphoinositide 3-kinase δ (PI3Kδ) is an important signaling biomolecule that controls immune cell differentiation, proliferation, migration, and survival. It also represents a potential and promising therapeutic approach for the management of numerous inflammatory and autoimmune diseases. We designed and assessed the biological activity of new fluorinated analogues of CPL302415, taking into account the therapeutic potential of our selective PI3K inhibitor and fluorine introduction as one of the most frequently used modifications of a lead compound to further improve its biological activity. In this paper, we compare and evaluate the accuracy of our previously described and validated in silico workflow with that of the standard (rigid) molecular docking approach. The findings demonstrated that a properly fitted catalytic (binding) pocket for our chemical cores at the induced-fit docking (IFD) and molecular dynamics (MD) stages, along with QM-derived atomic charges, can be used for activity prediction to better distinguish between active and inactive molecules. Moreover, the standard approach seems to be insufficient to score the halogenated derivatives due to the fixed atomic charges, which do not consider the response and indictive effects caused by fluorine. The proposed computational workflow provides a computational tool for the rational design of novel halogenated drugs.